268
LENIN COLLECTION

LETTER TO THE SECRETARIAT OF THE VTSIK AND SNK*

21 July 1921

I request that attention be paid to the switchboard on the lower floor of the Kremlin. It is operating in a completely unsatisfactory manner. In all probability, in addition to certain shortcomings in the organization and administration of this institution, there is also the circumstance that the circle of institutions using it directly has been inordinately expanded.

Would you not consider it correct to reorganize the matter in such a way that the switchboard would be used in the first instance only by: 1. Members of the Central Committee. 2. Members of the Presidium of the VTSIK, and 3. People's Commissars. All other institutions should, in my view, either be completely excluded or separated out, so that the central governmental apparatus might have telephone communication that works absolutely without fault.

I request that you communicate to me your opinion on this question. I insist very strongly on the necessity of decidedly and swiftly carrying out the reform.

Chairman of the SNK

V. Ulyanov (Lenin)

7300

NOTE TO V. M. MOLOTOV**

24 July 1921

Comrade Molotov!

Both I and Nadezhda Konstantinovna know Fofanova as an utterly honest Bolshevik since 1917. Attention must be paid to this. Drop me 2 words.

Lenin

* The letter was dictated by V. I. Lenin by telephone. Printed from a typescript copy.

On the document there is a record of an instruction from V. I. Lenin: "Vladimir Ilyich requests that books sent from the Comintern be sent. Keep a list of these books. A copy for him. Today by courier."

** Written in connection with a letter received by V. I. Lenin from M. V. Fofanova from the Crimea.

YEAR 1921

LETTER TO THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSARIAT OF AGRICULTURE

24 July 1921

The author—comrade Fofanova—was a member of the collegium of the NKZem.

I am not proposing her for this post.

She is a Party comrade, thoroughly tested even before October 1917.

An agronomist.

In my view, she must be used without question: summon her, talk with her, think it over. Either for local work. Or for inspectorate work.

There are so few agronomists from among Party comrades, and this milieu (agronomists) is so "foreign" to us, that we must seize with both hands a Party person for oversight of this milieu, verification of it, drawing this milieu toward us.

Drop me a line when you decide how you'll proceed.

Lenin

P.S. Return Fofanova's letter.

7305

TELEPHONOGRAM TO V. M. MOLOTOV*

25 July 1921

To Molotov:

I have read the papers delivered to me on your instructions, together with a letter from the secretary of the City Committee of the Moscow organization, as well as regarding the question of grain distribution in Moscow and Petrograd. On the second question I have already given you my draft resolution for the Politburo. On the first question we shall speak personally by telephone or at a meeting on Wednesday.

Lenin

* The document was dictated by V. I. Lenin by telephone. Printed from a typescript copy.